Of Womxn And Other Weeds

Of Womxn and Other Weeds is a collaborative artists’ book initiated and created together with Layla Durrani. The book explores the entangled worlds of weeds and devalued, or feminized*, practices. Of Womxn & Other Weeds is comprised of contributions from over forty artists, writers, herbalists, music makers, environmental educators, witches, doctors, sex workers; people of different ages, races, sexual orientations and gender identities. We recognize resonances between weeds as disparaged and unwanted plant matter and practices which have been overlooked within a neoliberalist context; practices that are typically enacted by womxn**, femmes and marginalized folks. The common weeds that have surrounded us for eons are often medicinal herbs. If we can look beyond the title “weed”, we find a powerful teacher in these plants. Womxn have been learning from these plant teachers for centuries.

* We use this word with full understanding that these practices were not solely practised by women. Instead, we use the term to contrast practices and practitioners working in subversive manners and methods to dominant practices under progress driven narratives. 

**Choosing to use the word womxn instead of women reflects our definition of womanhood, which explicitly includes transgender women and non-binary (femme) folks.

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With Of Womxn and Other Weeds we have composed a collaborative artist’s book that performatively reconnects and navigates female-coded lineages while acknowledging that there is no way back to the original knowledges and everything we do is an inevitable re-interpretation colored by digital media and the traumas induced by the interrelated fields of neoliberal work-relations, colonialism, the witch-hunts and their subsequential misogyny and sexism.

The book is split into two parts: “The Words Section” and “Practices”. The Words Section includes texts, but also words that are not explicitly written, so you’ll find images, sounds and texts throughout the publication. The Practices section consists of proposals for potential actions and methods.Of Womxn & Other Weeds is a limited edition artist book dreamed and designed in Amsterdam, and printed in the Netherlands. Each book arrives with a seed paper card which can be planted in the soil and will grow wildflowers. Limited copies have been printed of the first edition, in black and white.